Pastor Cristi Golas and his wife, Cami, lead a church in Pitesti, Romania called Adunarea Speranta Vie (Fellowship of Living Hope Church). Adunarea Speranta Vie (Fellowship of Living Hope Church) is a sister church to Valley Free and to Prairie Hill Church. It was planted in the 1990s by Evangelical Free Church missionaries Mike and Sandy Sindelar. MCEE (another Prairie Hill Missionary Partner) provides funds to aid the ministries of Living Hope Church too, from the proceeds of Legacy Thrift in Crystal.
Living Hope Church currently focuses on the Razboieni and Coremi ghetto neighborhoods, which are considered to be the poorest in the city. They host weekly worship services, Bible studies, and outreach events. Oftentimes, the individuals they reach are those who are homeless or from disadvantaged neighborhoods. Pastor Cristi and Cami have used large shipping containers in city parking lots as makeshift ministry centers to tutor or disciple youth. Highlights of their ministry also include bringing young people to camps, conducting AWANA at the church, providing shower and laundry facilities at the church for homeless people. They offer a coffee house ministry, a library (including a section on "Christian life during the time of Romanian Communism"), a playground at the church, babysitting and workshops (e.g. art, gardening, English) to the community, and a paint ball ministry that involves both outdoor activity and discipleship of young people. This is part of an emphasis called Striga Visul Tau (Shout Out Your Dream).
Our vision for these neighborhoods is to be a bright light of hope. We will love the unlovable. We will be friends to the lonely. We will show people that there is only One Perfect Friend who will never leave them, nor forsake them, even if the world rejects them. - Cristi Golas